The Need and Feasibility of the UN to Lead the Human Community in Creating a Digital Planet(023)
— An Open Letter to UN Secretary-General Guterres and Global Sages
5.3.3 Belief Has a Method
Although the three major religions have people dedicated to preaching and spreading their teachings, the number of devout believers remains limited even after one or two thousand years. Capitalism, on the other hand, has essentially no preachers yet has managed to gain the firm belief of over 95% of the global population in less than 300 years. Undoubtedly, capitalism has created an undisputed miracle in the realm of “cognitive belief” in human society. How did capitalism create this miracle? The answer is simple: capitalism has a method for belief. Whether or not you believe now, under the influence of this method, you will eventually believe. So, what is this method of belief? It is a testimony system, a practical system that can produce “continuous testimony.”
5.3.3.1 The Method of Belief is a Testimony System
The three major religions lack a testimony system, while capitalism has one. This is the fundamental reason for their ultimately different outcomes in terms of belief.
Some people argue that the three major religions also have testimonies, especially Christianity, which places strong emphasis on testimony. This is not wrong. However, all testimonies in the three major religions are individualized, rather than widespread or socialized. Individualized testimony means that what I witness may not necessarily be something you can witness, or if you do, it may be different from mine. The testimony system we are discussing refers to widespread and socialized testimony that can be widely verified. If you witness something and I verify it, the result will be the same as yours. For example, when investing in a stock, whether it rises or falls, everyone’s testimony is the same. When inflation occurs and money loses its value, everyone’s testimony is also the same.
Moreover, this kind of testimony is continuous. First, money (capital) ensures I do not go hungry. Then, money allows me to dress more decently. After that, money enables me to receive a better education. Next, money helps me earn more money. Finally, more money allows me to join high society and earn respect. From not going hungry to having dignity, to gaining knowledge, becoming wealthy, and finally becoming a respected person, each step testifies to the magical power of money, or capital. Even if someone initially has no faith in capitalism, after experiencing these continuous testimonies, they will eventually have no choice but to believe, and believe 100%. If capitalism is the religion of money, this person will ultimately become a devout believer in the religion of money without any doubt.
With a testimony system, a fictional story can be verified by everyone. If the verification is successful, people will start to believe. If the verification fails, they naturally will not believe. A person who initially does not believe may begin to believe somewhat after seeing others’ testimonies. They may start to verify for themselves, and after witnessing one or two times, their belief may grow stronger. After several more testimonies, their belief will be unwavering and complete. This means that with a testimony system, many unbelievers can gradually believe and eventually completely believe. This is the “method of belief.”
The truth of cognition discussed here is related to “belief” and the “method of belief.” “True knowledge” not only has true testimony (successful testimony) but also continuous and uninterrupted true testimony. This continuous and uninterrupted true testimony is the method of belief that generates “true belief.” Once the method of belief is mastered, truly understanding true knowledge will naturally follow. At this point, let’s change our perspective to understand cognition.
Religions, philosophies, and art do not actually involve cognition; they are more about feelings. And since everyone’s feelings are different, it is difficult to reach a consensus, especially a consensus among the vast majority. Although these fields are macroscopic and comprehensive, they struggle to generate profound world-changing power. Of course, they do change the world, but they do so in a gentle, slow manner. Mathematics, physics, and chemistry, on the other hand, involve cognition. They have a socialized testimony system, and the results after verification are quite consistent for everyone. As a result, people easily believe, and consensus is more readily reached. Even though these fields are specific and narrow, they can generate profound world-changing power and do so like a torrential force.
People today believe in capitalism, science and technology, and modern medicine because they all have their own testimony systems. Despite the significant drawbacks and blind spots of capitalism, science and technology, and modern medicine, people’s faith in them remains unwavering. This is because, regardless of the future, people can immediately see the testimony when they verify it now. Once they believe and have complete faith, a tremendous consensus is generated. This huge consensus, in turn, produces immense power to drive and force the entire human society to develop in the direction of the current testimony without considering whether there might be an abyss not far ahead.
Knowing that there is a method to belief, we understand that to achieve the self-rescue of the United Nations and humanity, creating a sufficiently new and large fictional story related to everyone’s interests is only the first step. More importantly, the second step requires creating a testimony system that allows each person to verify this fictional story. If this testimony system is successful and effective, then anyone who verifies it will ultimately believe in it after seeing the testimony.
If the testimony system is unsuccessful, ineffective, or produces poor results, and people cannot see the testimony after verification, the system needs to be continuously improved or even the fictional story itself, until people can successfully witness and believe.
Once people believe, a consensus is formed. The more people believe, the larger the consensus. A tremendous consensus can generate world-changing power.
This means that belief has a method, and the method of belief can be continuously improved. Undoubtedly, this statement, especially the latter part “the method of belief can be continuously improved,” captures the essence of the truth of cognition. This means that the testimony system for “belief” can also be continuously improved.
The testimony system outlined here is undoubtedly extremely important. However, when most of us do not understand the truth of the testimony system, we may find it difficult. Constructing a testimony system for a fictional story or for “belief” is already challenging in terms of where to start and how to build it. Ensuring the construction of a successful testimony system that enables all individuals to achieve successful testimony instead of failed testimony seems even more daunting.
In reality, this is not the case. Today, human society can use a unique, simple, and efficient method to construct successful testimony systems for any fictional story. Perhaps, this is one of the most precious gifts the new era has given to humanity.
5.3.3.2 The Testimony System Model of “Belief”
Thirty years ago, Kevin Kelly wrote a book called “Out of Control,” which has been hailed as the “Internet Bible” in China and still has a significant influence on the Chinese Internet industry today. The book pioneered the concepts of distributed management and self-organizing systems, accurately predicting today’s DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) model. The book discusses “swarm intelligence,” which refers to a large number of simple robots that, as long as they can maintain information exchange, can eventually emerge correct and efficient behaviors and results without any centralized decision-making instructions. Moreover, it is almost impossible for them to make catastrophic mistakes, as if there is an extremely wise brain commanding them. This is “swarm intelligence.”
Kevin Kelly believes that if human society can use “swarm intelligence” to reorganize and manage, we can not only avoid various foolish mistakes but also obtain opportunities for healthy and sustainable efficient development. He thinks that this is the “ultimate destiny and outcome of all humanity.” The distributed system built using “swarm intelligence” is essentially the testimony system we are discussing here. According to Kevin Kelly, building such a system is not difficult or complicated. However, his book is quite extensive and fragmented, making it difficult to read and understand, let alone read it completely. Therefore, most people do not have the patience for it. Here, we can understand the core ideas of “Out of Control” and distributed systems from another perspective.
We all know that there are two extremely stable ecosystems on Earth: terrestrial forest ecosystems and deep-sea marine ecosystems. Both of these ecosystems have extremely rich biodiversity. Taking the forest ecosystem as an example, it includes mosses, herbaceous plants, shrubs, trees, various animals, and various microorganisms. There are millions of different life forms and species. With so many complex creatures, and without a unified command and coordination center, they can not only coexist peacefully and harmoniously but also maintain a healthy and stable living environment for thousands or even tens of thousands of years, without causing fatal errors leading to the destruction of the entire ecosystem. It seems as if there is an omnipotent and omnipresent intelligent brain commanding the forest ecosystem. If we call this intelligent brain “ecological thinking,” it is evidently more advanced than “swarm intelligence.”
Since both the simplest “swarm intelligence” and the most advanced “ecological thinking” can perform well under self-organizing and self-managing models, allowing the entire group to avoid fatal mistakes and achieve long-term stable development, why can’t human society, which is more complex than a swarm but simpler than a forest, use “system thinking” to build a self-organizing and self-managing system? Once such a system is established, it can almost completely eliminate the possibility of failure through self-adjustment, self-coordination, self-organization, self-correction, and self-evolution, and ultimately achieve success. This is why Kevin Kelly believes that it is not difficult or complicated.
The question is, even if it’s not difficult or complicated, not everyone can build such a system, right? Of course, my first choice here is the United Nations, as they have more advantages. However, in reality, anyone can build it, and it’s possible for anyone to succeed. This was something human society could not achieve 2000 years ago, 1000 years ago, or even 100 years or 10 years ago. Today, as long as we are willing, we can definitely achieve it. Let me remind you again that the self-organizing, self-managing distributed system mentioned here is the successful testimony system that we want to build.
Why? We still need to start from the basic operating principles of “swarm intelligence,” “ecological thinking,” and “system thinking.”
Let’s use a less fitting “god-given gold bar” analogy. God chose two groups of people, Group A and Group B, each with seven people. God told them that there were seven bags of gold bars weighing 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10 kg each at Point Z to be given to them; whoever gets there first gets the gold. Starting from Points A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, there might be at least one route to reach Point Z.
Group A had seven people, and each person explored from each of the seven points, but none of them found a passable route.
Group B also had seven people, and they agreed that no matter what they found, they would communicate with each other, and the gold bars obtained would be equally divided among them. Not long after setting off, they all encountered obstacles: some had no roads, some had cliffs, some had steep mountains, and some had rapids. After communicating with each other using their phones, they unanimously agreed that there was a big tree by the river at Point B3. If they pushed it down, it could form a bridge to cross the river. So, all seven people came to Point B3, worked together to push the tree down, and eventually reached Point Z. Each person got a share of the gold bars. In fact, when each person in Group A arrived at this location, they knew that pushing down this tree could help them cross the river, but one person could not push the tree down, no matter how hard they tried, and had to return empty-handed.
Group A represents “linear thinking,” a zero-sum game. Group B represents multithreaded thinking, or the simplest form of “system thinking,” sharing and win-win.
From this analogy, the basic operating principles and most important principles of “swarm intelligence,” “ecological thinking,” and “system thinking” can be extracted, which are also the principles and rules of the distributed testimony system. These will form the basic principles for building a testimony system for “trust” in human society, and as long as we can follow these basic principles, the testimony systems we build will eventually succeed.
(To be continued)
The English translation is mainly done by AI and is inevitably not accurate enough. Please refer to the original Chinese text below for a more accurate understanding.
联合国引领人类社会打造数字地球的必要性和可行性（023）
— — 致联合国秘书长古特雷斯及全球贤达的公开信
5.3.3 “信”是有方法的
三大宗教都有人专门传道、布道，可是，一两千年时间过去了。信得足的人依然很有限。资本主义可以说基本无人布道，却能在不到300年的时间内，让全球95%以上的人信得足。毫无疑问，在“信的认知”层面，资本主义创造了人类社会无可争议的惊人奇迹。而资本主义究竟是如何创造这个奇迹的呢？说起来也很简单，资本主义有一套“信的方法”。不管你现在信不信，在这套方法的作用下，你迟早会信。那么，这“信的方法”又是什么。就是一种见证体系，一种可以产生“连续性见证”的实践体系。
5.3.3.1 “信的方法”是见证体系
三大宗教没有见证体系，而资本主义有一套见证体系。这就是在“信”的层面，造成它们最终不同结果的根本原因。
有人说，三大宗教也是有见证的。尤其是基督教，特别强调见证。这么说也没错。但是，三大宗教中的所有见证都是个性化见证，而非大众化、社会化见证。个性化见证是说，我见证到的东西，你不一定能见证到。或者，你就算见证到了，也跟我不一样。而我们说的见证体系，是指可以得到广泛验证的大众化、社会化见证。你见证到了，我去验证结果跟你的也一样。比如投资一支股票，这支股票涨了、跌了，所有人的见证都是同样的。通货膨胀了，钱不值钱了，所有人的见证也都一样。
不仅如此，这种见证还具有连续性。首先，钱（资本）可以让我不饿肚子。接着，钱可以让我穿得更体面。再接着，钱还能让我受更好的教育。再接下来，钱可以让我赚更多的钱。最后，更多的钱可以让我跻身上流社会、受人尊重。从不饿肚子，到有面子，到有知识，到成为富人，到最后成为受尊重的人。每一步，都在见证金钱、也就是资本的神奇魔力。就算他最开始对资本主义完全不信，但经过这一步步的连续性见证后，最终他不得不信、不得不100%的信。如果说资本主义是金钱教，那么，这个人最终就能成为对金钱教笃信无疑的信徒。
有见证体系的虚构故事，每个人都可以自己去验证，验证成功了，就会开始相信。验证失败了，自然不会去信。一个人，最初可能不信，看到别人有见证后，开始信三分了。自己也开始去验证，有一两次见证后，变成信七八分了。再多几次见证后，就笃信无疑，就信得足了。这就意味着，有了见证体系，可以让很多不信的人，逐渐相信、最终完全相信。这就是“信的方法”。
我们这里所谈的认知的真相，是与“信”相关联的，是与“信的方法”相关联的。“真知”不仅有真见证（成功见证），而且，有连续不断的真见证。而这种连续不断的真见证，就是产生“真信”的信的方法。掌握了信的方法，“真正认知到真知”就顺理成章了。谈到这里，我们不妨再转换一个角度来理解认知。
宗教、哲学、艺术，其实是没有认知这一说的，只有感觉。而每个人的感觉都是不一样的，很难达成共识，尤其难以达成绝大多数人的共识。尽管它们很宏观、很全面，也难以产生深刻改变世界的巨大力量。当然，它们也在改变世界，只不过是以涓涓细流的形式在改变。而数学、物理、化学，它们才谈得上认知。因为有社会化见证体系，每个人验证后的结果都相当一致。这样，人们就很容易相信，共识也很容易达成。即便它们很具体、很狭窄，也都可以产生深刻改变世界的巨大力量，而且，是以滚滚洪流的形式在改变。
今天的人们为什么信资本主义、信科学技术、信现代医学，就是因为资本主义、科学技术和现代医学都有自己的见证体系。即便资本主义、科学技术和现代医学都有极大的弊端和盲区，也依然不妨碍人们对它们的笃信。就是因为不管未来如何，至少人们现在去验证，就可以立即看到见证。人们就会立即相信，一旦相信、信得足了。巨大共识就会产生，而巨大共识又会产生巨大力量，去驱动和裹挟着整个人类社会朝着当下见证的方向发展，而无暇顾及在不远的前方是不是会有万丈深渊。
知道信有方法后，我们就会明白。要实现联合国自救、人类自救，创造一个足够新、足够大，与每个人利益相关的虚构故事，仅仅是第一步。而更重要的是第二步，还需要创造一个能让每个人去验证这个虚构故事的见证体系。如果这个见证体系是成功的、有效的，那么，任何一个人通过验证都能看到见证，最终都会信。
如果这个见证体系不成功、无效，或者效果很差，人们验证后看不到见证。那就需要不断去改进这个见证体系，甚至改进这个虚构故事，最终能让人们成功见证、成功相信。
信了就有共识，信的人多了，共识就大了。巨大的共识就能产生改变世界的巨大力量。
这就是说，信是有方法的，信的方法是可以不断改进的。毫无疑问，这句话、尤其是后半截“信的方法是可以不断改进的”。正是认知的真相之精华。这句话的意思是说，“信”的见证体系也是可以不断改进的。
这里所阐述的见证体系，无疑是极为重要的。但是，我们绝大多数人在不了解见证体系的真相时，可能会感觉到很难。构建一个虚构故事的见证体系，或者“信”的见证体系，从哪里下手，怎么构建，这本来就很难了。还要确保构建的是一个成功的见证体系。让所有人都能在里面得到成功见证，而不是失败见证。那不是难上加难吗？
其实不然。今天，人类社会可以用一种独特的模式，简约而高效的构建任何虚构故事的成功见证体系。或许，这正是新时代送给人类最珍贵礼物之一。
5.3.3.2 “信”的见证体系模式
30年前，凯文·凯利写了一本名为《失控》的书，这本书在中国被誉为“互联网圣经”。对中国互联网产业至今还产生着极大影响。这本书首创了分布式管理和自组织系统的理念，准确地·预见到了今天的Dao模式。书中谈到了“蜂群思维”。认为：一个数量极大的简单机器人群体，只要它们之间能保持信息互通，就能在没有任何中心化决策指令的情况下，最终涌现出一个又一个正确且高效的行为和结果。而且几乎不可能产生毁灭性的错误，就像有一个极具智慧的大脑在指挥它们一样。这就是“蜂群思维”。
凯文·凯利认为，如果人类社会能用“蜂群思维”来重新组织和管理，我们不仅能避免各种愚蠢的错误，还能获得健康可持续的高效发展机会。他认为，这才是“全人类的最终命运和结局”。而用“蜂群思维”构建的分布式系统，实际上，也就是我们这里所说的一种见证体系。按凯文·凯利的意思，构建这样一个系统并不困难、也不复杂。可是，他的这本书非常庞杂、零碎，要读懂它，哪怕是完整读一遍都不容易。因此，绝大多数人都没有这个耐心。这里，我们可以从另一个角度来认知《失控》这本书的核心思想和分布式系统。
我们都知道，地球上有两大极其稳定的生态系统，分别是陆地森林生态系统与海洋深海生态系统。这两大生态系统都具有极其丰富的生物多样性。我们仅以森林生态系统为例，从苔藓植物，到草本、灌木、乔木，再到各种动物、各种微生物。不同的生命体、生物物种高达上百万。这么多、这么复杂的生物在里面，又没有一个统一的指挥协调中心，它们不仅能彼此相安无事、和谐共存。而且，还能在几千年、几万年的时间内，始终保持健康稳定的生存环境，从不会出现致命性的错误导致整个生态毁灭。似乎这个森林生态系统中有一个无所不能、无所不在的智慧大脑在进行总指挥。如果我们将这个智慧大脑称作“生态思维”，那它显然比“蜂群思维”更高级。
既然最简单的“蜂群思维”，最高级的“生态思维”，都能在自组织、自管理模式下做得很好。让整个群体从不犯致命性错误，并能长期稳定的持续发展。那么，处在它们之间，比蜂群更复杂，但比森林更简单的人类社会，为什么不能用“系统思维”构建一个自组织、自管理的体系。这样的体系一旦建立起来，通过自磨合、自协调、自组织、自修正、自进化，几乎完全没有失败的可能。最终都必然走向成功。这就是凯文·凯利认为不困难、不复杂的原因。
问题是，就算不困难、不复杂，这样的体系也不是谁都能构建的吧。当然，我在此信中，首选是联合国，他们更有优势。但事实上，真的是任何人都可以建，而且，都有可能建造成功。这一点，人类社会在2000年前、1000年前肯定做不到。即使在100年、甚至10年前，都依然做不到。而今天，只要我们愿意，就肯定能做到、一定能做到。这里再提示一下，这里说的自组织、自管理分布式系统，就是我们要构建的一种成功见证体系。
为什么？我们还需要从“蜂群思维”、“生态思维”，以及“系统思维”的基本运作原理说起。
打个不那么贴切的“神赠金条”比喻。神挑选了甲乙两组人，每组7人，神对他们说，Z点有7袋重量分别70、60、50、40、30、20、10公斤的金条赠送给你们，谁先到谁先拿。从ABCDEFG这7个点出发，至少有一条路有可能通达Z点。
甲组有7个人，每个人都分别从7个点出发探索了一遍，可始终没有任何人找到走得通的路。
乙组也有7个人，大家协商好，无论发现什么，都要相互通气，最后获得的金条大家均分。出发不久，都相继遇受阻，有的没路了，有的是悬崖，有的是陡峭山峰，有的是急流。彼此用手机交流后，一致认为，乙3的那条河边有一棵大树，如果把它推到，正好可以架一座独木桥过河。于是，7个人都来到乙3处，合力推到了那棵树，最终果然都到达了Z点。每人都分得了金条。其实，甲组每个人到达这里时，都知道推到这棵树就能过河，可1个人，无论如何也推不倒这棵树。只能无功而返。
甲组是“线性思维”，零和博弈。乙组是多线程思维，也就是最简单的“系统思维”，共享共赢。
至此，“蜂群思维”、“生态思维”和“系统思维”基本运作原理和几个最重要原则，也就是分布式见证体系原理和原则，都可以从这个比方中提炼出来了。它们将形成构建人类社会“信”的见证体系的几个基本原则，而只要我们能遵循这几个基本原则，我们构建的见证体系，最终都会走向成功。
（未完待续）
